Ask-a-Teacher Question

<< more questions for course 3

Question to Teacher: How do you tell the difference between KAU (to raise) and KAU (to buy)?
Course 3 Lesson 7: Two Chickens (New Verbs)

matt7988

Post Date: 2009-10-15 05:54:19

save to notebook

saved questions

member since
2009 Jul 06

Questions: 43
Comments: 7

This may sound rather simple, but in normal conversation, how would one know if someone was telling you that they raised 6 dogs or bought 6 dogs?

Inu o roppiki katteimasu.

I am raising 6 dogs.
or
I bought 6 dogs.

Was this question helpful to you?

JFZ_George

Post Date: 2009-10-15 10:50:02

member since
1997 Aug 25

Questions: 22
Comments: 2701

Good question.

With the example you gave it's VERY easy to distinguish the difference.

katteimasu is the "on going present tense form"

So INU O ROPPIKI KATTEIMASU can mean the following things.

1. I am raising 6 dogs.
2. I am buying 6 dogs.

#2 does not mean "I bought 6 dogs". The only time #2 would be used is when the person speaking is actually purchasing the dogs AT THE MOMENT he is saying INU O ROPPIKI KAATTEIMASU.

There are other times where it's easy to get confused.

1. INU O KAU. (I will raise a dog.)
2. INU O KAU. (I will buy a dog.)

But even this would most likely be easy to figure out.
Normally when someone says they are going to buy something they include a time frame for the purchase. "I am going to buy a dog tomorrow"

1. ASHITA INU O KAU.

That makes it extremely easy to realize they mean "buy" and not "raise". Because there isn't really any time where I person would say "I am going to raise a dog tomorrow".

The simple answer to your question is 90% of the time you can figure out which verb it is simply by the surrounding words or circumstances.

The other 10% of the time you might have to ask more questions!

I hope this helps!

George
YesJapan.com

sanyosuru

Post Date: 2009-11-08 08:13:33

member since
2005 Dec 24

Questions: 0
Comments: 6

It's all context, baby
There are many cases like this in Japanese.

George's answer was clear and concise, but the simpler answer is that it just depends on context.

If it were typed/written, you could tell by kanji, but there are many Japanese verbs that sound exactly the same, in which case you must always examine the context to figure the verb. Kinda like nouns in English, you can usually piece it together in conversation.